Flight attendants angry over American Airlines 'beauty contest'

MSN NZ Travel Bite staff

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

American Airlines plane. Image from Flickr: jbself20

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American Airlines flight attendants are outraged over a company-wide competition to find the best-looking female and male air stewards at each crew base. The winners are to model the airline's newest uniforms in marketing material, but the flight attendants' union won't have it.

Laura Gladling, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, emailed the union's 18,000 members today calling for an end to the "ridiculous, insulting beauty contest", according to Bloomberg. Gladling said that the model search undermines the flight attendants' primary duty: in-flight safety.

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"This campaign just transported us back 50 years to the days of girdles, weight-checks and single, female-only stewardesses having to quit when they were married, pregnant or reached the ripe old age of 30," Glading said in her email.

The "Face of Your Base" campaign only started this week, but it's already causing its fair share of controversy. While many won't want to be involved in the contest, some flight attendants are "flattered", according to Missy Cousino, a spokeswoman for the AA base of Fort Worth, Texas.

Airlines have a long history with glamourising the air host/hostess profession. From the early days of Pan Am, soon to be turned into a Mad Men-style TV show, to over-the-top sleazy commercials like a regional Russian airline's bikini-clad hosties washing an aeroplane, to annual surveys revealing the world's top 10 sexiest airlines, there are countless examples of where the airline industry focuses on its employees' 'assets'. And we're not talking cart-pushing, people...

Is the campaign outdated or just a bit of fun? Share your thoughts below.

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User comments

Fantastic idea! The only reason one would object that I can see are the flight attendants getting either too fat or too old. I myself would far prefer to see an attractive young flight attendant, over recent years they are getting older, fatter and grouchier!

They are looking for models from both sexes. So why is evry1 only focusing on female side? People who doesnt want to participate in the competition can work as normal. wont affect their lives. they should take it as a personal challenge instead of a competition.

this is the kind of revolting perception of women propagated by the media that serves the ruling class capitalists objective of keeping women 'in their place' - domestic chores, producing children and being sex objects at home and in the public - propping up the institution of the family that gets all the domestic work and reproduction of human labour for free. Not only does this competition contribute to exploitation of women at home but it also fuels unrealistic expectations of domestic and sexual relations, putting women at further risk of domestic violence and date rape. these are working women, and like all women deserve respect. their union's position should be commended.

Flight attendants are supposed to take pride in their appearance. There are not requirements, but it is nothing but nice to recognize people that work very hard to maintain their looks. You want to have the uniforms modeled by people that represent the company well-not an 84 year old or an obese woman or man. You do not see people like that in magazine because it is not a visually appealing way to display clothes. All they are doing is choosing someone from the company instead of a stock model to represent the fashion well and make it look attractive. They're keeping it personal instead of hiring someone outside to do the work! Sounds like a fantastic idea to me and I would not ever win this honor!